"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." Orwell

"Men are so simple of mind and so dominated by immediate needs that the deceitful man can easily find those ready to be deceived."
Machiavelli

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire

Monday, December 13, 2010

Drawing Board, Back To

Oops. Teensy problem. After two previous and opposite rulings by federal judges, a Bush-appointed one is the first to say the health-care insurance mandate is unconstitutional. Not unreasonable. Unconstitutional. Having always argued for single-payer or, at minimum, a "public option," I'm tempted to say "told ya so." It always seemed a little dicey, constitution-wise. No matter which judge is "right," it'll eventually get to the S. Court, one must assume.

The good news is that, in a society that makes sense, governed by legislators who had wisdom, this would mean retooling and returning to the Itoldyahowtodoit plan. The bad news is... reality.

Assuming the ruling stands -- and with our current Supreme Court who could predict otherwise? (in fact, admitting to zero scholarly background, I'd say the decision is correct even though I think it's too bad, sort of) -- the last thing that'll come out of our newly dumber Congress is a public option or single payer. The only question is whether they'd take it up at all, or just let health care reform once again become excardiized on the Republican alter of tax cuts.

Two other federal judges have ruled that the law passes constitutional muster. No judge has ruled the law unconstitutional. Many observers think Hudson will be the first.

That prediction is built partly on Hudson's roots in Republican politics. He was elected Arlington's commonwealth attorney as a Republican, briefly ran against U.S. Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.) in 1991 and has received all of his appointments - as U.S. attorney, as a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge in 1998 and to the federal bench in 2002 - from Republicans.

For The Sake of My Sanity

Some will know me from my other blog, "Surgeonsblog." Of late I've given over to frothing at the mouth as the world descends into stupidity, and our politics and our citizens seem, in numbers enough to be meaningful, unable to see it. So for now I'm leaving surgery writing behind, if for no other reason than to defuse and diffuse my unrelenting sense of doom, and with no expectation of making a difference. These are things that, to me, are obvious. Except that, apparently, they aren't.

RWS™

RWS™: For those who drop by here in the middle, and wonder what it means: it's my shorthand for Right Wing Screamers, which includes such a long list it's tiresome to type it. (I distinguish these blowhards from thoughtful conservatives, of whom I sort of take it on faith that there must still be some.) You know who I mean: Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Breitbart (RIP), Malkin, Savage, Levin, Ingraham, Doocey (more of a drooler than a screamer), Hewitt, Goldberg, Gingrich, Kristol, Scarborough (+/-), Bachmann, Inhofe, Bond, Broun, Boehner, Kelley, Santorum, Cain. To name but a few. Behold them in their unrepentant disregard for reality: the RWS™